PERB has released its annual report for fiscal year 2013-2014. (The report is available here.) Here is my annual summary of the statistics in the report:
Unfair Practice Charges
949 unfair practice charges (UPCs) were filed in fiscal year 2013-14. However, 173 of these charges were filed by the same individual on behalf of himself and/or other employees over agency fee issues. So if we subtract the 172 ‘duplicate’ UPCs, that still leaves 777 UPCs filed in fiscal year 2013-14. That’s a 14.6% increase from fiscal year 2012-13, in which 678 UPCs were filed and reverses a two-year trend of decrease UPC filings.
The increase in UPCs was across-the-board, led by a 28.4% increase in UPCs filed under HEERA (104 adjusted UPCs versus 81 in 2012-13). The Dills Act had a 23.3% increase in UPC filings (53 versus 43 in 2012-13); the MMBA had a 14.3% increase in UPC filings (303 versus 265 in 2012-13); and EERA had a 7% increase in UPC filings (290 versus 271 in 2012-13). I expect these numbers to remain about the same in fiscal year 2014-15.
Year: # of UPCs
2013-14: 949
2012-13: 678
2011-12: 768
2010-11: 744
2009-10: 802
2008-09: 868
2007-08: 816
2006-07: 823
2005-06: 1012
2004-05: 1126
2003-04: 838
2002-03: 802
2001-02: 740
ALJ Proposed Decisions
In 2013-14, the ALJs at PERB issued 76 proposed decisions, the same number of proposed decisions issued in 2012-13. The 76 proposed decisions issued this year, and last year, are the most proposed decisions issued by PERB since the mid-1980’s. Notably, the 76 proposed decisions issued was greater than the 69 hearings completed, which means the ALJs reduced the backlog of pending proposed decisions. Because PERB added an 8th ALJ in May 2014, I expect the number of proposed decisions issued in 2014-15 to increase.
[Note: This year the annual report did not state the average number of days it took to issue a proposed decision, so I don’t have that number]Year: # of Proposed Decisions (Average # of Days)
2013-14: 76 (Unknown)
2012-13: 76 (128)
2011-12: 61 (102)
2010-11: 38 (122)
2009-10: 57 (86)
2008-09: 52 (94)
2007-08: 44 (94)
2006-07: 41 (85)
2005-06: 46 (100)
2004-05: 49 (63)
2003-04: 47 (53)
2002-03: 52 (53)
Board Decisions
For 2013-14, the Board itself issued 87 decisions and also considered 25 injunctive relief (IR) requests. The 87 decisions is a 70.6% increase from the 51 decisions issued in 2012-13, but still less than the 110 decisions issued in 2011-12. The decrease in 2012-13 can be explained by the fact that some new members were appointed to the Board and needed time to get their offices up and running. Now that the Board is set, we see that the number of decisions has gone up. I expect that to continue.
As of today, the Board’s docket consists of 59 cases. Historically, that’s not bad since it represents roughly one year of work for the Board. However, many of the cases on the docket are well over one year old. So I’m hoping that in this coming year the Board will focus on getting decisions issued in these older cases.
Year: # of Board Decisions/IR Requests/Combined Total
2013-14: 87/25/112
2012-13: 51/17/68
2011-12: 100/21/121
2010-11: 79/16/95
2009-10: 79/13/92
2008-09: 89/19/108
2007-08: 65/28/93
2006-07: 87/16/103
2005-06: 80/23/103
2004-05: 142/14/156
2003-04: 128/13/141
2002-03: 73/14/87
2001-02: 44/23/67
Factfinding Requests
In fiscal year 2012-13, there were 26 requests approved for factfinding under EERA and HEERA. There were 65 factfinding requests filed under the MMBA. Of these 65 requests, 53 were approved for factfinding. The 65 requests under the MMBA represents a very slight increase from the 62 requests in 2012-13.
Year: # of Requests
EERA/HEERA
2013-14: 26
2012-13: 34
2011-12: 29
MMBA
2013-14: 65
2012-13: 62
2011-12: 21
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